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Louis J Rubbo

Departmental Mailing Address: Coastal Carolina University Department of Chemistry & Physics P.O. Box 261954 Conway, South Carolina 29528	Office: 105C Smith Science Center Phone: (843) 349-6489 Fax: (843) 349-2841
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In the coming years gravitational wave astronomy will ameliorate our understanding of the cosmos. Using large scale interferometric detectors, such as the terrestrial based LIGO, VIRGO, GEO 600, and TAMA observatories, we will be able to directly study regions of intense gravitational strength that would normally be shrouded in hot, glowing gas or invisible to our electromagnetic telescopes. While the first unambiguous direct detection of gravitational radiation will be a celebrated event, the true payoff of these detectors will come from the astrophysical information we can infer from them. The before mentioned ground-based detectors are already searching for signals from coalescing compact binaries, supernovas, and deformities on neutron stars.

Terrestrial detectors are limited to gravitational wave frequencies above a few Hertz. Below this cutoff, seismic and gravity gradient noises prevent ground-based detectors from exploring the anticipated source rich low frequency region of the gravitational wave spectrum. To get at the low frequency sources requires placing a detector in space. The leading candidate for such a space mission is the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or simply LISA. It is in LISA, and other possible spaceborne missions, that my research focuses on.

As a graduate student under the advising of Dr. Neil Cornish, I focused on three particular aspects of spaceborne gravitational wave astronomy. My first project was on the response of a space-based detector to arbitrary gravitational wave signals. With a full response formalism in hand, we then developed a number of response approximations. The second topic I looked into was the identification and removal of overlapping (in the frequency domain) galactic sources. The last project I was involved with was a study of the galactic gravitational wave background. This particular project involved building a Monte Carlo model for the gravitational wave sources located in the galactic disk. Together these three topics formed the core of my Ph. D. dissertation.

My current research directly follows from my studies as a graduate student at Montana State and as a postdoctoral scholar under the advising of Dr. Lee Samuel Finn at the Center for Gravitational Wave Physics I'm now investigating how to extract astrophysical information about galactic populations from LISA data, the event rate for extreme mass ratio burst signals, and using a Bayesian probability analysis to investigate the information content in gravitational wave signals.

In addition to research, I've also worked on a number outreach projects aimed at introducing undergraduate level students to gravitational wave astronomy. This work has lead to the development of two hands-on activities. The first activity introduces the method of template matching, a common analysis routine for detecting signals within a noisy time series. A second activity demonstrates what information content is contained in a gravitational wave signal and how one goes about extracting the information. Both activities are featured in the educational support material packaged with the Nation Science Foundation's Einstein's Messengers DVD video about LIGO.

For more information on my research and other activities I've been involved with, follow the links on the left.